ARCHDIOCESE OF WELLINGTON.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXVI, Issue 14, 12 August 1898, Page 3

ARCHDIOCESE OF WELLINGTON.

an undoubted boon to the good Sieters who have now to travel every morning over three miles from the parent house in Hill street to the schools, and the same distance on the return journey, and this, too, in all kinds of weather. It is only those who have resided in this windy city for a few winters can realise the hardships which these Sisters have to undergo in attending the schools under the present arrangement. School teaching in itself is a laborious work, but to spend all day in a stuffy room wearing very often damp or wet garments is very trying to the most robust constitutions. The establishment of such a house in Newtown will also be of inestimable advantage to the people of the district, for the Sisters will have time to visit the sick and also the public institutions in the neighbourhood. The old pupils, or to put it in another form,- the ' old girls 'of the Dixon street School intend to give very soon ti social on a large scale for the purpose of raising funds to assist in painting and repairing the school. When this is done these schools will be the most complete of their kind in this city, and will not require any improvemements for years to come. At present a large shed is being erected on the grounds to be utilised by the children for playing in during wet weather. The well-known energy of the young ladies who have this matter in hand is an assurance of its success. The Ritualistic controversy has broken out here in a mild form, but so far no prominent individual has been smitten, as those who have taken part in it have hid their light under the bushel of a norn de plume, and consequently their effusions have been relegated to the back pages of the papers. We are too intent here at present in manufacturing Acts of Parliament for the ennobling and controlling of mankind to pay much attention to such trivial matters. Perhaps Ritualism is not so much in vogue in the local Anglican churches as to call for any strong opposition, and hence the indifference with which certain allegations as to ' Romish ' practices are treated. One contributor's bile has been stirred by seeing his clergyman strutting around the church in ' garments ' which have a family resemblance to those worn by ' Roman Catholic priests,' and for the life of him he does not see why the Bishop cannot go from one side of the church to the other without being attended by a clergyman. Such was not the case fifty years ago, he says, when the congregation was not offended with so much ceremony. He intends, however, to have the whole matter threshed out at the annual meeting of parishioners, when he will make it hot for the innovators. Threatened people, it is said, live a long time, so it may be with this Ritualistic parson, for he will most probably call the annual meeting for the evening when his venerable critic is warmly esconced between the sheets and thoroughly oblivious of 1 vestments ' or ' positions.'